Research-informed Practice

A two-part PLP with Jonathan Robinson(Director of Teaching School)

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Part I

• Lifeworthy Learning• Flipped Learning• Forgetful Learning• Retrieval Learning

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Lifeworthy Learning

What did you learn duringyour first twelve years ofeducation that matters in

your life today?

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State something you understand really well

How did you come to understand it?

How do you know you understand it?

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What knowledge and skillsdo young people need to

learn for our complexfuture?

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The Top Results from the International Conference on Thinking (2007, Sweden)

• Thinking• Self-understanding• Empathy• Ethics• Communication• Learning to learn• Environment• Global perspectives• The arts

• Collaboration• Health• Dealing with conflict• Spirituality• Science• Maths• Technology• Society and how it

works

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The Problem with Achieving Literacy

READING LITERACY + KNOWLEDGE

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What is worth Learning?

Choice of What to

Learn

21st Century Skills

Beyond Traditional Disciplines

Interdisciplinary

Problems

Global Perspectives

Learning to Think about the World with the Content

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Knowledge as Vehicles

INSIGHT: HOW DOES THIS MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD WE LIVE IN?

ACTION: HOW CAN WE ACT EFFECTIVELY IN THE WORLD AS A RESULT OF INSIGHT?

ETHICS: WHAT CHOICES AND MORAL DILEMMAS RESULT FROM ACTION?

OPPORTUNITY: HOW DOES ALL THIS LEARNING MATTER TO LIVES OF LEARNERS TOMORROW?

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Tim Holt: Big Questions (from Think historically: narrative, imagination, and understanding (1990)

Take a page from a text book, look at the assertions made (declarative statements).

Challenge the statements by creating questions from them or about them (interrogatives).

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Cross-Disciplinary BucketsPoverty

Latin American geography, socio-economic history, geopolitics, political systems, sociology, applied sciences, religions and faith, literature, media studies, music, design and technology, art, textiles, food, sport, the Law, tourism, business and economics …

Poverty Cinema

Energy

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What’s the point of [Spanish]?

• A is for … Al-Andalus• B is for … bullfighting• C is for … conquest• D is for … dictatorship• E is for … ecology• F is for … film• G is for … Gaudí• H is for … humanity• I is for … independence• J is for … Judaism• K is for … kingship• L is for … literature• M is for … modernism

• N is for … nutrition• O is for … Opus Dei• P is for … Picasso• Q is for … Quixote• R is for … Romance• S is for … sport• T is for … terrorism• U is for … universe• V is for … voyages• W is for … the West• X is for … xenophobia• Y is for … Yucatán• Z is for … zarzuela

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What kind of learningWill serve learners best

In the future?

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Flipped Learning

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The Ideal Educational Landscape Content

CuriosityRelationship

DEVELOPTWIRLS!

T = THINKW = WRITEI = INTERACTR = READL = LISTENS = SPEAK

FLIPPING FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

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Forget to Learn: 5 Little Ideas

• Study Use Reinforce• Performance Manner of Study• Silent Study (no stimulus) + Silent test (no

stimulus) Low Retrieval• Interference during learning promotes

forgetting forces deeper concentration• Restlessness can be a sign of concentration

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Change Habits of Learning• Add colours and sounds to words (combine visual stimulus with

cognitive activity)• Change where we study• Change how we study (standing, moving, sitting …)• Re-writing not revising• Sit pre-test to purposely fail. That leads to strengthened learning

later on. (Set end of unit test on the first lesson and then again at the end of the unit)

• Self-testing regularly• Interleaving (e.g. practise several skills at once)• Mix problem types in homework, so students have to draw from

prior and current learning and adapt to new contexts

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Spaced Learning of Factual Information aka Distributed Study Time

Time to the Test

1 week1 month3 months6 months1 year

First Study Interval

1-2 days1 week2 weeks3 weeks1 month

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Interruption

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Retrieval Learning1. Regular testing of the same material (aka calibration)2. Quizzes at the start and end of lessons3. Delay feedback and correction4. Regular self-testing rather than revising by rereading5. Interleaved practice6. Varied practice7. Relatable contexts for retrieval8. Foster conceptual cross-curricular learning9. Generation learning10. Writing to learn11. Student-led learning12. Learn through non-preferred learning styles13. Make stories out of learning14. Pre-reading and anticipate questions and possible answers15. Free recall plenaries16. Learning paragraphs

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Leitner Boxes

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Conceptual Learning

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Memory Palaces

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Reflection and Next Steps

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Part II: Changing Landscapes

• Variance Theory• Gamification of Learning

Premack’s Three Criteria of Pedagogy (1984)1. There is a goal for learning2. There is a systematic attempt by the teacher to

help the learner reach that goal3. The systematic attempt is guided by the

teacher’s perception of the learner’s progress

“Pedagogy, in its widest sense, is the servant of cultural evolution.”

- Ference Marton

Challenge for Teaching Profession and Society at Large:a) Do we remove the institutionalism of ‘pedagogy’ somewhat and focus on connecting students with the ‘real world’? ORb) Do we enhance pedagogical function so students see the world more powerfully, where the school is seen as part of the real world?

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Variance Theory

• At least two variants are needed to enable meaning

• Critical aspects are needed to enable learning and make students independent in their learning

• Keep questions as open as possible

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Example 1: learn to do or learn to see?

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Example 2: What is the critical aspect?

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Example 3: How to discern the first time?

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Variation in Action

X Y1. i i (repetition)2. v i (contrast: what’s different)3. i v (generalisation: what’s the same)4. v v (fusion: what’s different and same)

Action:Prepare students for the unknown by means of the known – expose to lots of different angles on an issue and learn to discern different types of variation

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Questioning Style

a. Can an octopus change its colour?b. Can you name an animal that changes its colour?c. Why does the octopus change its colour?

In (a) the fact is proposed and student only has to decide true or false. In (b) the fact is given and student has to remember what fits. But in (c) the fact is stated and the student has to explain

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Question Style Continued• Try to avoid pointing out the relevant aspects of a problem to be solved, so

students have to discern them.

Example 4: “What makes a pendulum swing faster?”

Example 5: “Three fishermen were spending the night on the riverbank. All were smokers, but only one had an open pack of cigarettes. They divided the cigarettes equally. By the morning each one had smoked 4 cigarettes, and they left altogether as many cigarettes as each one had had at first. How many cigarettes did each fisherman get when the cigarettes were divided equally?”

• Then get students to construct their own similar problem based on what they have discerned

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Example 6: Students Themselves Bring About the Variance Needed to Learn

From Kafka’s Vor dem Gesetz (Morton & Booth, 1997, p.150):

‘The story concerns a man who tries to get admittance to the Law, the door to which is fiercely guarded by a man who refuses him entry, saying that he is not allowed in but that he should wait and see. However many times and in however many ways he tries to get in, he is unsuccessful. As the old man makes a final attempt, asking why nobody else has ever tried to go through the door, only to be told by the guard that the door was only for him, and now that his life was coming to an end, the door was to be closed.’

What did Kafka want to say with the story?

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Finding Novel Meanings

• Change points of view• Change the perspective for looking at a

problem• Represent the task in different ways• Use different tools to handle a task• Ask ‘What if?’ questions• Juxtapose a problem with similar and different

problems in order to understand it better

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Example 7: Using Video to Shift Focus

• Watch a scene without the sound and break the scene into segments

• With each segment the students focus on one element and describe what they see in detail

• Then play whole scene with students reading the script as a kind of voiceover

• Then show students a similar scene with a different protagonist. Repeat the process.

• What is different? Why?• Homework: Find another similar clip and watch with sound.

What do you notice? How does this clip differ and bear resemblance to the first two clips?

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Owning Learning

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What do Students Learn?

1. Problem is invariant, but solutions variant – students learn that problems can have multiple solutions

2. Problem invariant, but context variant – students learn which solution is best for a given situation

3. Pattern invariant, but vary rotational position – students make idea of rotation their own

4. Pattern invariant, but vary reflections – students make idea of reflection their own

5. Pattern invariant, but vary descriptions – students learn how a set can be understood in terms of its elements or the transformations that generate it

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Challenge 1: Mathematical

• British education tends to employ the less effective approach of an invaried method but varied problems

• A shift to more varied methods for teaching a common problem may be more effective (as shown in the Chinese approach to teaching mathematics: called 变式 (biànshì).

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Challenge 2: Literary

• British education tends to approach genre (and other literary or linguistic concepts) by looking at multiple examples of a given genre (or other literary / linguistic concept).

• A more powerful approach to understanding a specific genre (etc.) may be to compare texts of different genres (or other concept) that all share the same theme, thus making the features of a given genre (etc.) more discernable.

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Gamification – Why?• It’s fun!• It’s stimulating!• It’s collaborative and competitive• It promotes thinking• It makes learners face up to the consequences of their decisions

and actions• It facilitates the transition of learning to the real world• It acts as a catalyst for intrinsic motivation• It makes progress extremely explicit• It promotes a positive feeling of accomplishment while building

resilience• It develops tacit knowledge

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Gamification – Basic Principles

• It should simulate reality• It should consist of challenges• It should develop social skills (and other soft skills)• It should award points• It should lead to rewards• It should lead to mastery through completing successive

challenges and from making mistakes in a safe environment

• It should make active involvement compulsory• It should incorporate choice and personal responsibility

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Reflection and Next Steps

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Further Reading

• Bergmann, J. and Sams, A. (2014) Flipped Learning – Gateway to Student Engagement, Washington D.C.: ISTE

• Brown, P. C., Roediger III, H. l., and Mc Daniel, M. A., (2014), Make it Stick – The Science of Successful Learning, London: The Belknap Press

• Carey, B., (2014), How We Learn – The Surprising Truth about When, Where and Why It Happens, London: Macmillan

• Marton, F., (2014), Necessary Conditions of Learning, Oxford: Routledge

• Perkins, D. N., (2014), Future Wise – Educating our Children for a Changing World, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

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Online Reading

• eLearning Industry. Pappas, C. et al How Gamification Reshapes Learning (Free eBook) [online]. Accessed at: http://elearningindustry.com/how-gamification-reshapes-learning#cover

• [accessed 15 October 2014].